1. Field of the Invention
The field of art to which this invention relates is broadcast television or on-demand transmission of video/audio presentation. It is more particularly directed to a user interface for interaction with supplementary information embedded with a video stream and delivered to a television set in a single transport.
2. Description of Prior Art
The distribution of supplementary information, presented and accessed in the context of viewing of a video program, was described in a commonly owned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/888,574. The supplementary information is distributed to users, connected to a digital broadcast medium. This supplementary, or "follow-up" information may take the form of video, audio or text, and is embedded as digital signal in the same transport stream as the original digital video and audio signal. Alternatively, the transport stream may carry pointers to follow-up information instead of the information itself. In this case, the pointers are saved and used subsequently in the selection of "follow-up" information from the channel which carries supplementary data exclusively.
Similarly, a system enabling the insertion of supplementary data into digital video streams, is described in a commonly owned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/032,491. As described, an editor annotates a video stream with content which is related to objects appearing in that video stream. The editing process is facilitated by the automatic marking and data association of some regions in the video. This automation utilizes interpolation between marked "end points" specified by the editor, as well as the recall of "scene contexts", i.e., the markings of previously edited scenes which recur in the video. Finally, a co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/968,404 describes a two-way digital multimedia broadcast service utilizing embedded control and supplementary data in the context of interactive applications, including navigation from one video program to another by selection of objects in the current video; creation and transmission of records of user viewing habits and interaction histories; iterative video-based data search and retrieval; dynamic customization of coordination between video and data content of the broadcast stream; and the dynamic creation of "personalized" programs by the user, through the broadcast and selection of overlapping program segments which are themselves customized for a particular user or group of users.
A capability is required which allows selectable regions to be dynamic, and to have an ability to change location and other properties as the multi media presentation progresses. The display modality, such as an on-screen cursor or an icon, which indicates the selectable region, should change location together with the object in the selectable region.
Using a free-floating cursor which can be positioned at any screen location to point to arbitrary screen regions is common in the personal computer (PC) environment. TV viewers, the majority of whom do not own PC's and lack familiarity with them, do not have the opportunity to acquire skills necessary for manipulating a free-floating cursor. Thus, pointing methods in the TV environment that require use of a free-floating cursor would require considerable viewer training and coordination, and would discourage viewers from using the system.
In personal computer technology, the use of an on-screen cursor which is moved by tabbing and is used for the selection of various on-screen options is well known. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,678,041, 5,515,495, 5,146,556, and 5,659,335 describe implementations of on-screen cursors used in this way. All these systems involve a static display of graphics and/or icons on a PC screen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,607 describes the use of tabbing selected on-screen areas having textual information e.g., teletext, or alphanumeric information displayed on a television screen for the selection of various functions, such as on-line banking. Teletext is typically implemented with a dumb standalone terminal device or with a device attached to or built into a standard television. A keyboard may be used as the user input device. Options are displayed on-screen using the graphics capability of the attached or built-in device and are navigated via tabbing before being selected.
In the context of analog or digital video signal display, many patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,568,272, 5,508,815, 5,517,254, 5,734,853, and 5,559,459 describe an on-screen graphics menu enabling selection and navigation of an electronic program guide. The user is presented with a static screen display having a menu of programs, and navigates through the menu by scrolling or jumping to different screens, and finally selecting a program to view. In these systems, the selection of menu items is strictly on the graphics screen(s) and no selections are offered once the video is playing. One feature is provided however, whereby the menu is recalled and superimposed over the playing video. In this case, the menu content and the video content are independently generated and transported on different streams, and there is no meaningful coordination between video content and the superimposed graphics.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,517,257, 5,648,824, and 5,100,386 describe systems utilizing on-screen graphics for the control of video functions, such as pausing and rewinding of an ongoing video in a video-on-demand transmission or in an interactive television scenario. In these systems functions are offered to the viewer via an on-screen graphics representation e.g., of a remote control unit or control buttons of a camera. As an example, these on-screen representations enable user selection of a display viewing angle from among a choice of viewing angles. A remote control unit may be used as the user input device. Again, the functions offered graphically on-screen are not related to the content of the video which is being played.
Despite considerable viewer interest in video applications, including interactive and multimedia applications, such as those related to home shopping, most viewers will be discouraged by a navigation and selection method which requires more than a point-and-select approach. On-screen text displays, such as the menus presented to the viewer in an electronic program guide (EPG), allow the viewer, using a very simple interface, to jump from one option to another and make a selection. No corresponding system exists for video content-related options in a broadcast or in an on-demand multi media presentation (MMP). Moreover, in a MMP, because objects are moving, a user interface which allows only fixed screen regions to be selectable is insufficient.
Thus it would be highly desirable to provide an interface which allows viewers to navigate among selectable screen regions (hot spots) associated with objects contained in a multi media presentation, and to invoke functions and/or supply information relating to the selected object.